| HEIDI WEBER MUSEUM (1964 - 1967) | |
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Short description of the Centre Le Corbusier |
The Heidi Weber Museum is a "Gesamtkunstwerk"
and reflects the harmonic unity of Le Corbusier's architecture, sculptures,
paintings, furniture designs and his writings which is unique and possibly the
only one such existing structure in the world - a total work of art.
(Le
Corbusier - the universal artist)
Located on the wooded shores of Lake Zurich, the last building designed by Le Corbusier, synthesizes Corbusier's genius. Yet it marks a radical change of his achievement of using concrete and stone so poetically. He framed his final masterpiece in steel and glass and thus created a signpost for the future. Le Corbusier made great use of prefabricated steel elements together with multi-coloured enamelled plates fitted to the central core, and above the complex he designed a 'free-floating' roof to keep the house protected from both the rain and the sun.
"... On the edge of a public park that rolls down to
the beauty of the lake, it sits like an exotic insect warming its bright metallic
wings in the sun..."
(Michael Peppiatt, Architectural Digest)
"... A dramatic, and highly fitting, memorial to a man
who, all his life, had strived for the unusual...."
(Peter Haytt, Steel Profile)
"... Le Corbusier had, apparently, waved a wand and produced
a fascinating little Greek temple from under his hat. It is possibly the finest
thing he ever
did ..."
(Stephen Gardiner, Le Corbusier, Fontana Modern Masters)
Museum Milestones:
1960: Heidi Weber mandates Le Corbusier to conceive a public exhibition building.
1961: The first drawings for a building to be constructed in concrete arrive in Zurich.
1962: Le Corbusier changes the concept to steel.
1964: The construction starts.
1965: Le Corbusier passes away on August 27.
1967: On July 15, the Centre Le Corbusier - Heidi Weber Museum is officially inaugurated.